How to Help Baby Deal with Acid Reflux

Guide on how to help baby deal with acid reflux or Gastroesophageal reflux with symptoms.

You might notice that your baby is coughing, spitting, or wheezing after eating. He or she might even seem irritable during feeding, and may even refuse to eat. The baby might even cry if you let him or her lie down after being fed.

Acid Reflux in Babies

These are all symptoms of Gastroesophageal reflux. Also known as acid reflux, this is a condition when the person’s esophagus can’t close properly such that the food that was eaten goes back up. This doesn’t just cause problems for the baby, but it does so for everyone in the house as well.

When this happens, you should call your pediatrician right away. But if you can’t do that, there are a couple of things that you can do in the meantime to keep things from getting worse.

For one thing, keep the baby in an upright position. This will keep the food down, preventing it from going back to the esophagus. This will also ensure that the food is properly digested. Do this especially after feeding the baby so that you allow the food to settle down. Avoid shaking or jiggling the baby at this time, if at all. Otherwise, you prevent the food from getting digested faster.

The condition can also be lessened if you change the amount of food the baby takes at a time. If you think that the baby can’t handle the usual amount of food in one feeding without acting up, then you can try dividing the feeding time into smaller amounts, but at more separate feeding times. Essentially, you feed your baby less but more frequently. After all, it’s having too much food in the baby’s stomach that causes the acid reflux.

Burping the baby also helps prevent acid reflux from occurring because it keeps air from filling the stomach where food could have been properly accommodate. We all know how to burp babies – we normally burp them against our shoulder. But this might put too much pressure on the baby’s tummy, so it has to be done differently for acid reflux in particular. To do this, keep the baby in the upright position and gently tap his back to help him burp.

During Breastfeeding

As much as you need to control the baby’s food intake, you also need to make sure that he or she doesn’t get too much from you when you breastfeed, especially in times when he or she is experiencing acid reflux. Also, make sure that the hole on your nipple isn’t too big – it has to be only enough to let the milk pass through. Otherwise, the baby could be taking in more air than milk, which will only cause more acid reflux.

Baby’s Food Diet

And lastly, change some of the baby’s food. If you think that it’s the formula that’s causing the reaction you should change it. Avoid dairy products as well since, like adults, some babies might not react well to them as well.